Multilingual practices in English classrooms: Exploring teacher and student perspectives, challenges, and strategies in grade 7 public and private schools of Gilgit, Pakistan

Date of Award

2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Philosophy in Education (MPhil Ed.)

First Advisor

Dr Dilshad Ashraf

Department

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Abstract

This qualitative study explores the perceptions, practices, and challenges surrounding multilingual practices in English language classrooms within the multilingual setting of Gilgit, Pakistan. Through classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with teachers and Focused Group Discussions with students and document analysis, the study reveals a profound difference between official English-medium policies and actual classroom practices. Findings indicate that despite institutional directives for English-only instruction, teachers and students consistently rely on Urdu and local languages, such as Shina and Burushaski, as vital pedagogical tools to facilitate comprehension, explain complex grammar, and foster a supportive learning environment. These practices, while demonstrating the perceived cognitive and affective benefits of leveraging students' full linguistic repertoire, exist in tension with dominant monolingual ideologies. Participants reported significant concerns that using local languages hinders English acquisition, creates dependency, and leads to classroom inequality. The study identifies an urgent need for pedagogical frameworks that reconcile the demand for English proficiency with the strategic use of multilingual resources. It concludes by calling for a reform of language-in-education policy and teacher development programs to provide structured, principled guidance on translanguaging pedagogies, thereby transforming linguistic diversity from a classroom challenge into a foundational asset for learning.

First Page

1

Last Page

93

This document is available in the relevant AKU library.

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